The Sepang circuit, in Malaysia, was the scene today of the start of the first pre season tests of the year. And it was the best beginning for the Repsol Honda Team that, after the great expectation raised by its launch yesterday at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Sepang, was again the center of media interest due to the results achieved on track.
Casey Stoner, who got on track today wearing for the first time the Repsol Honda livery, as in Valencia he rode a white bike due to his contractual obligations. He showed again his innate talent to be fast from the beginning. Always among the top five, Casey finished the session on the first place of the classification 4 tenths ahead of the second placed, current World Champion Jorge Lorenzo. The Australian was delighted with his Honda RC212V 2011 performance and with his arrival to the Repsol Honda Team. Casey and his mechanics only did some small adjustments to the two bikes at his disposal, as they decided to focus on recovering the riding pace after the winter break. At the end of the day, the Australian rider was very satisfied with this first session.
Dani Pedrosa, third fastest at the end of the session, also had a very promising and satisfactory beginning. The current Runner-up of the Championship, arrived with the unknown factor of how his left shoulder and arm would respond, after the difficult last part of the season due to a crash in Japan. The Spaniard was pleased and relieved at the end of this first training day, as although he was tired, he was able to find that he has taken a huge step ahead in the recovery during the winter. Pedrosa, who today focused on riding the 2010 bike, set his best times when he took the track with some improvements he will have on the 2011 machine. Tomorrow, the Repsol Honda Team rider plans to start the test of the new 2011 engine.
Andrea Dovizioso, who set the eight fastest time of the day, was also pleased with the day’s outcome. Despite a slowest time than his team mates, the Italian, who rode with the Honda RC212V 2011, was content with the potential of the new bike and the result of this first test.
Tomorrow, the MotoGP riders will complete their second test session and on Thursday the first tests of the year will come to an end.
Dani Pedrosa >> Audio >> Audio (Cat)
“I’m pretty happy with how things went today. My priority was to see how I was on the bike after so long without riding and the feeling has been positive. Obviously I still have less strength under braking and lack of stability in the shoulder with the direction changes, but the cramps have gone and this is very positive for me. We have time to continue with my physical training and gain the strength that I need for when the season starts. I honestly didn’t expect to do so many laps today. I started with the Honda 2010 to get the feeling back and because in the second half of the season our bike was competitive and we wanted to begin improving from there. Then I tried a new swingarm and a new chassis in the last two runs, and my best lap time has been with the new parts, so it’s also positive. The plan for tomorrow is to test the new engine”.
Andrea Dovizioso >> Audio
“I’m happy because this year we are starting from a very good base. All Honda riders are very competitive so I’m confident and this is an extra
boost for me. Today we tested the new engine, it has more power in the low revs and this helps me with the line. We also tested the new chassis and it has some positive and negative points so we need to understand it better. We did a comparison work with the 2010 and 2011 forks, the stability in the front has improved but we must rectify some vibrations in the middle of the corner, together with work on the suspension. I’m satisfied with the fact that it was easier to find the rhythm and with hard tyres I could lap consistently on 2.02.5. I lapped at 2 tenths from the first riders when they
were using the same tyre. We decided not to use the soft tyre in the end because we focused on understanding the new machine.”
Casey Stoner >> Audio
“Very positive day. At the beginning it took some time to get used to the bike again, but I soon felt comfortable and we had a good day. We didn’t change the set-up too much compared to the one we had in Valencia and I am pleased to see that even if the circuit is different, it still works pretty
well here in Sepang. We did some work later on with the engine braking to decrease some chattering and looks like we found a good solution. In the next few days we will start testing something new but, anyway, for me it was a very good way to come back on track after the winter break”.
